Easing the pressure on local GPs via targeted digital campaigns

This year we were tasked by the Leicester City Clinical Commissioning Group (LCCCG) to run two digital campaigns educating residents on what to do when suffering a common illness or condition. The main objective was to limit the number of unnecessary appointments made at GP surgeries, when effective treatment can be easily found elsewhere.

The ‘self-care’ campaign provides practical information about looking after yourself for a range of common health topics. The ‘Primary care’campaign demonstrates that a number of healthcare professionals – pharmacists and surgery nurses for example – can provide the appropriate health advice without requiring a GP appointment. This allows doctors to allocate time to patients with more serious health issues.

Our approach

Initial research focused on common topics and keywords that people use when searching online to find advice for everyday illnesses such as colds, flu and various types of pain. The insight gained informed our activation ideas. We developed an approach that brought the campaign messages to life across various touch points including two dedicated sections within the LCCCG website.

We worked closely with LCCCG to target four audiences in Leicester; parents, carers, students and young people. Having these defined groups allowed us to match characteristics to audiences within Facebook and using their sophisticated advert options, we built our bespoke audiences. For example, those who listed their education as ‘at university’, fell into the students group whereas those identified in Facebook as ‘caregiver’ were added to the carers audience. Our audience targeting was further supported by a broader Google display ads campaign, with banner placements on the Leicester Mercury website, focusing on those users accessing the site from the Leicester city area. This provided an additional touch point to reach those not active on Facebook.

What did we achieve?

As with any digital marketing activity, it was crucial to have data-driven results. The key measure for the LCCCG was to drive traffic to the campaign landing pages. With combined social media and Google paid advertising, we achieved the following: